The European Commission intends to approach Pfizer/BioNTech for the advance purchase of vaccines. “We are almost there”, a European official said on Thursday 3 September, after the United States and the United Kingdom both placed orders with the alliance between the US laboratory and the German biotech company.
At this stage, the European Commission has reached an agreement with AstraZeneca for the advance purchase of its candidate vaccine, which could reach the European market as early as November (see EUROPE 12547/7). It has also concluded preliminary discussions with Sanofi-GSK, Johnson&Johnson, Curevac and Moderna with a view to reaching the same type of agreement.
“[With these advance purchases of vaccines], the Commission is acting like an investor”, explained another source. “If the trials are inconclusive, it’s a waste of money. The Member States are customers: they will only start paying if there are convincing results”.
These advance purchase agreements will indeed include a compensation scheme, confirmed another European official (see EUROPE 12547/7). In order to compensate for the high risks taken by manufacturers, the advance purchase agreements provide that Member States will indemnify the manufacturer if defects are observed after the product has been placed on the market (hidden defects). “But companies remain responsible for manufacturing”, he added.
Upcoming announcements on ACT-Accelerator
The European Commission is expected to make announcements next week as part of its ACT-Accelerator initiative with the World Health Organization. This was confirmed by a European official on Thursday 3 September.
ACT-Accelerator functions as a coordinating structure to guide and oversee global efforts to accelerate the development of, and access to, vaccines, treatments and diagnostics around the world. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)